“spontaneous” Complete Remissions In Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia; Report Of Three Cases And Review Of The Literature

Abstract

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is often an indolent disease which may only produce symptoms and signs at an advanced stage. Spontaneous complete remission in CLL is a rare event. There have been few previous reports (Buchi et al., Acta Haematologica 70 (1983), 198-201 and Ribera et al., Blood Cells 12 (1987), 471-483) and the mechanism for such remissions remains speculative. It seems likely that spontaneous complete remission in CLL is achieved by an immunoregulatory effect, possibly through endogenous interferon, whose production may be provoked by viral infection. The authors report three cases of spontaneous complete remission in CLL.